This invention relates to a process for continuously degasifying fine-grained fuels, particularly coal, in which a fine-grained degasified residue is recirculated as a heat-carrying medium and is heated in a pneumatic conveyor line and then fed to a collecting vessel, a first partial stream of the heat-carrying medium is fed through a mixing zone together with the fuel to be subjected to dry distillation, a second partial stream of the heat-carrying medium is fed to a secondary degasification zone together with the mixture comprising the dry distillation residue, volatile constituents are distilled from the mixtures in the mixing zone and the secondary degasification zone and are fed to dust-collecting and condensing means, and degasified residue is recirculated to the pneumatic conveyor line.
Some portions of this process are known from Printed German Application No. 1,809,874, German Pat. Nos. 1,909,263 and 2,208,418, and U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,655,518 and 3,703,442. In the known processes, the heat-carrying medium consists either of the residue left after the degasification of the material to be degasified, or of an extraneous material. In the process according to the invention the degasified residue is used as a heat-carrying medium.